File folder paper fastener

ABSTRACT

A paper fastener for a file holder or a stack of paper sheets is made from a elongated base strip slit at its opposite ends to provide spaced prongs and an intermediate loop, when folded for the attachment of the base strip or clip to the folder material after the prongs have penetrated the same and the loop being bent to retain in a self supporting manner upwardly extending coiled springs, the lower turn of the coil spring resting flush against the loop so that the springs when bent are made free will return to vertically extending position, these spring connectors are made flat by squashing the coils spring or with turns of eliptical shape and such that they accommodate little thickness or space over the top of the paper sheets when they are assembled by their punched holes thereover. These spring connectors are adapted to be extended as well as bent and have cooperating loop and hook ends for engaging them together over the top of the paper sheets to confine the paper sheets upon the file holder.

United States Patent Chamberlin [4 1 Dec. 19, 1972 [22] Filed:

[54] FILE FOLDER PAPER FASTENER Dec. 28, 1970 21] App]. No.2 101,882

[52] U.S. Cl. ..402/15, 402/57, 402/18 [51] Int. Cl. ..B42f 3/06 [58] Field of Search ..402/14,15, 18, 57, l6, 17,

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,141,792 12/1893 Kern ..402/18 1,437,329 1 H1922 Wilburger ..402/57 416,621 12/1889 Howd ....402/8 1,019,174 3/1912 Miller ..402/8 3,534,447 12/1970 Muirhead ..402/14 X 1,289,454 12/1918 Hyatt ..402/57 UX FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS 648,593 8/1937 Germany ..402/13 369,115 2/1923 Germany ..402/9 59,967 l/1950 France ..402/13 74,495 4/1930 Sweden ..402/14 Primary Examiner-Jerome Schnall Att0rney-Polachek & Saulsbury [57] ABSTRACT A paper fastener for a file holder or a stack of paper sheets is made from a elongated base strip slit at its opposite ends to provide spaced prongs and an intermediate loop, when folded for the attachment of the base strip or clip to the folder material after the prongs have penetrated the same and the loop being bent to retain in a self supporting manner upwardly extending coiled springs, the lower turn of the coil spring resting flush against the loop so that the springs when bent are made free will return to vertically extending position, these spring connectors are made flat by squashing the coils spring or with turns of eliptical shape and such that they accommodate little thickness or space overthe top of the paper sheets when they are assembled by their punched holes thereover. These spring connectors are adapted to be extended as well as bent and have cooperating loop and hook ends for engaging them together over the top of the paper sheets to confine the paper sheets upon the file holder.

3 Claims, 5 Drawing Figures PATENTEIJ HEB-l 9 I972 INVENTOR.

L W B M W A wA W/ N A M E L O Y FILE FOLDER PAPER FASTENER This invention relates to a file holder paper fastener.

It is an object of the present invention to provide an expansible paper fastener adapted to accommodate punched hole paper sheets wherein the connecting members over the paper sheets are made a part of the base assembly and through extension can be pulled over the stacked paper sheets and connected together to confine the paper sheets upon the folder.

It is another object of the invention to provide a file folder paper fastener which can be readily attached to the file folder by simply causing the spaced prongs at the ends of the base strip to penetrate the folder sheet material and thereafter the base strip can be made secure to the folder material by simply bending the prongs over the back of the folder. V It is still another object of the invention to provide a paper fastener for file folders which has fiat self supporting springs connected to the opposite ends of a base clip spaced apart to accommodate the spaced holes of paper sheets readily and which of themselves can be extended and drawn together by bending the flat springs over the paper sheets and connect them together and which will by its construction consume little added thickness to the paper sheets and the folder assembly.

Other objects of the invention are to provide a paper fastener for file folders which is of simple construction, has a minimum number of parts, easy to assemble upon the file holder, complete in its assembly and adapted to be extended substantially for different thicknesses of stacks of paper, has long-life, light in weight, eliminates the need for punching holes in the file folder, efficient and effective in use.

For a better understanding of the invention, reference may be had to the following detailed description taken in connection with the accompanying drawing, in which:

FIG. 1 is a fragmentary perspective view of a stack of file folder papers having the file folder paper fastener extended through the stack of papers and the ends of the same spring biasingly secured together. J

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the file folder paper fastener lifted from the file folder with its fastening projections extended and with one of the spring connectors bent inwardly from a raised position in which the spring connectors will extend themselves when not connected together.

FIG. 3 is a sectional view of a file folder and stack and with the file folder paper fastener connected to the file folder and the spring connectors extended through the spaced holes of the stack of file papers and connected together.

FIG. 4 is a transverse sectional view taken through one of the holes in the paper stack and looking in plan on one of the coils of the spring connectors upon its connection with the end of the paper fastener base clip, the view being taken on line 4-4 of FIG. 3.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of the underside of the file holder and looking upon the attaching prongs for the fastener, prongs being extended over the thickness of the tile folder to grip the underside thereof, there being two gripping prongs at each end of the fastener.

Referring now to the figures, represents a stack of paper sheets adapted to be either secured together as shown in FIG. 1 or into a folder 1] in the manner shown in FIG. 3. These sheets are rigidly secured together in any size thickness and to the folder 11 by a file holder paper fastener assembly of the present invention as indicated generally at 12. This assembly 12 comprises generally a main flat base strip or clip 13 formed at its ends with spaced prongs 14 and 16 at one end of the strip 13 and at 17 and 18 at the opposite end of the strip 13. The prongs 14 and 16 are spaced from one another and in between the same is a foldable projection 19 that extends through a loop 21 in a coil spring connector 22 in such a manner that the lower end of the spring connector 22 seats flush against the folded projectionor prong that is looped about the looped spring end 21. This coil spring while having turns of of the spring of somewhat eliptical shape is sufficiently flat and of sufficient area to maintain this spring in a vertical position against the top face of the loop 19 so that the spring connector 22 when made free of the papers will normally take positions shown at the left of FIG. 2. The upper end of the spring connector 22 has a hook end 23. This spring connector 22 functions like a coil spring and can be both extended and folded as shown at the right of FIG. 2 but when released and made free will extend preferably straight upwardly so as to be spaced apart to receive the different sheets of paper having spaced holes 24 and 25 punched in them with an ordinary fastener type punch. The lower ends of the prongs l4 and 16 are respectively beveled at 26 and 27 in an opposing manner to provide sharp ends to penetrate the folder material 11 and to make the respective holes 28 and 29. Once these prongs 14 and 16 have penetrated the folder back they are bent inwardly to effect a gripping engagement with the reverse face of the folder material I l as best seen in FIG. 5.

At the opposite end of the base strip or clip 13, a similar flattened coil spring connector 31 is connected to normally extend vertically by an intermediate loop 32 that extends through a loop 33 at the lower end of the spring connector 31 and so as to have engagement of the lower turn with the top face of the loop 32 such that the coil spring is extended normally to a position shown in dotted lines at the right end of FIG. 2. This spring connector 31 instead of having a hook at its upper end has a closed loop 34 adapted to receive the hook 23 of the spring connector 22 and connected together in the manner as best shown in FIGS. 1 and 3. It should be understood that when the spring connectors 22 and 31 are disengaged from one another they will assume a vertically extended position to ready them for receiving the punched paper sheets thereby making it easy to place the punched paper sheets on to the clip assembly.

The lower ends of the prongs l7 and 18 are beveled respectively at 36 and 37 so as to penetrate the folder sheet material that can respectively puncture holes 38 and 39 and bent downwardly as best seen in FIG. 5 to have gripping engagement with the back face of the folder 11. The base clip 13 is thus rigidly held by the prongs 14, 16 and 17, 18, when they are bent inwardly as shown in FIG. 5.

It should now be apparent that there has been provided a file folder fastener assembly that is expandible to the different thicknesses of a stack of paper sheets and wherein the connected portion spring connectors are extensible to accommodate the different thicknesses of the stack of sheet and wherein these spring connectors when released from the stack of sheets by unhooking their respective free ends 23 and 34 are self supporting to be extended vertically and in position to readily receive other punched holepaper sheets. By having the spring connectors 22 and 31 v made of flat construction they assume little thickness added to the stack of paper sheets for receiving the folded over cover portion of the file folder. Control is not lost of the free ends of the spring connectors 22 and 31 when hooking the ends 23 and 34 together. It will also be seen that there is no danger from this type of assembly in loosing parts of the fastener assembly as the parts themselves are fastened together, the spring connectors 22 and 31 being connected rigidly by the folded over intermediate loops l9 and 32 on the base clip 13. The spring connectors are made of such lengths and can be varied in length depending upon the use to which the paper fastener assembly 12 is to be put.

While various changes may be made in the detail construction, it shall be understood that such changes shall be within the spirit and scope of the present invention as defined by the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

1. A file folder paper sheet fastener comprising a base strip having at each end thereof spaced downwardly bent prongs adapted to penetrate the file folder material and be bent over the back thereof to provide a tight grip with the file folder and intermediate bendable loops bentupwardly from said base strip and extending respectively from the opposite ends thereof between said prongs and respectively transversely aligned with the spaced prongs thereat, spring connectors in the form of coil springs flattened to minimize the thickness of the same when extended over paper sheets assembled upon the connectors and overlying the base strip, said springs each being retained at the opposite ends of the base strip by its flat bottom turn of the spring held in flush tight grip assembly upon the upper face of the bent over intermediate loop whereby the spring connectors when free of the paper sheets will be self supporting and stand upright at a distance apart to be accommodated within the spaced punched holes of paper sheets, said respective spring connectors having means on their free ends for securing the connectors together upon the spring connectors being bent toward one another to retain the paper sheets assembled thereunder, said spring connectors being extensible and flattened to minimize the thickness of the connectors when extended over the paper sheets.

2. A file folder paper fastener as defined in claim 1, and said means on their respective free ends of the spring connectors providing a loop formation on one of the connectors and a cooperating hook formation on the other connector.

3. A file folder paper fastener as defined in claim 1, and said spaced prongs being opposingly beveled from one another to provide penetrating pointed ends for puncturing the folder sheet material as the base clip is to be secured thereto. 

1. A file folder paper sheet fastener comprising a base strip having at each end thereof spaced downwardly bent prongs adapted to penetrate the file folder material and be bent over the back thereof to provide a tight grip with the file folder and intermediate bendable loops bent upwardly from said base strip and extending respectively from the opposite ends thereof between said prongs and respectively transversely aligned with the spaced prongs thereat, spring connectors in the form of coil springs flattened to minimize the thickness of the same when extended over paper sheets assembled upon the connectors and overlying the base strip, said springs each being retained at the opposite ends of the base strip by its flat bottom turn of the spring held in flush tight grip assembly upon the upper face of the bent over intermediate loop whereby the spring connectors when free of the paper sheets will be self supporting and stand upright at a distance apart to be accommodated within the spaced punched holes of paper sheets, said respective spring connectors having means on their free ends for securing the connectors together upon the spring connectors being bent toward one another to retain the paper sheets assembled thereunder, said spring connectors being extensible and flattened to minimize the thickness of the connectors when extended over the paper sheets.
 2. A file folder paper fastener as defined in claim 1, and said means on their respective free ends of the spring connectors providing a loop formation on one of the connectors and a cooperating hook formation on the other connector.
 3. A file folder paper fastener as defined in claim 1, and said spaced prongs being opposingly beveled from one another to provide penetrating pointed ends for puncturing the folder sheet material as the base clip is to be secured thereto. 